DC friends, you're cordially invited to attend today's panel at the Bipartisan Policy Center. I'll be joining WINEP's David Pollock and Hanin Ghaddar for a special discussion about new directions in American strategic communication.

November 30 has been designated to commemorate the mass exodus of close to one million Jews from Arab lands. In this week's Al-Majalla, I tell the story of one of them. Joseph Smouha, a Jewish native of Baghdad, drained the swamps of Alexandria and built an urban center of tolerance and prosperity, only to flee Egypt penniless.

Amid metastasizing refugee crises across the Arab world, this sad chapter in the region’s history bears remembering. Doing so is part of the introspection needed to begin the process of reconciliation and redress for peoples of every indigenous ethnicity and faith. It can also create an opportunity to build new bridges.